She studied
hard the entire school year, regularly set aside time on Sundays
to practice, and now, with her freshman year at the University
of Illinois at Springfield coming to a close, Alisha Backus, 19,
faces this important examination: the College Poker Championship
semifinals.
This is no small deal, considering 4,500 students will be in
front of their computers Sunday trying to make the cut in an
online poker competition that began eight months ago. It
culminates in a $41,000 scholarship to the winner with the next
nine finishers sharing a $53,000 scholarship pool. The finals
are set for the following Sunday.
"I'm not obsessed like some of the students I see playing all
the time, but I could sure use the scholarship," said Backus,
one of approximately 300 students in Illinois schools left in
the contest. "My parents played some, but I never did till I
came to college this year and saw everyone doing it."
The game is Texas HoldEm, with no entry fee, and students are
assigned preset, but imaginary money totals to wager each round.
More than 25,000 students across the U.S. started the
competition, a leap from the 10,000 who entered the previous
year, and semifinal results will be posted on the event's Web
site, www.collegepokerchampionship.com.
Organizers already are making plans for next year's tournament,
which, unlike this year, will see finalists in face-to-face
competition, most likely televised.
"We are not encouraging gambling," insisted Kerry Johnson, a
spokeswoman for College Poker Championship. "We're showing how
poker can be a strategic learning tool. There are lots of
examples how it's already used in classrooms."
Not everyone buys into that, of course.
Online gambling is heavily restricted in the U.S., but
enforcement rarely occurs because of easy accessibility through
technology. Schools do not sanction -- or even condone -- the
competition and, in many cases, have rules expressly forbidding
gambling on campus property.
Sponsors point out money is not involved because they regard
earnings as scholarships. A spokesman for the Illinois Gaming
Board expressed doubt that definition would hold up in this
state, where online gambling is against the law, but
acknowledged it would be almost impossible to enforce the law at
this point if his interpretation was correct.
The College Poker Championship may never become a fixture
rivaling basketball's Final Four, but its stars could turn out
to be better students. Last year's two top finishers, Grant
Coombs and Eric Hanson, were from academically prestigious
schools, Washington and Lee and Northwestern universities,
respectively.
And Alisha Backus? She's an honor student at UI-Springfield,
majoring in criminal justice.
"Someday I hope to be a criminal defense lawyer," she said, "and
I like poker because I learn something every time I play. It
makes me think laterally, which is a good skill to have."
TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER
